Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Overwhelmed

I keep feeling thisclose to being on the verge of being overwhelmed, but luckily I haven't quite fallen off the overwhelm cliff and gone crazy.  This time of year is crazy at work.  I work in agriculture financing and year end is a busy time for financial planning for customers. 

I was in charge of our schools PTL fundraiser over the weekend- a large taco bar.  I should have been better prepared for it, but well....life.  Luckily it went by smoothly and we earned a lot of money for the school.

I have been going strong at the gym and can definitely feel the burn today!  I haven't been running but I am definitely missed it.  I hope to get the streets sometime over the long weekend.

I have been running warm up on the treadmill and I still hate it.  But I am getting stronger with my weights, so yay!

I have self diagnosed myself with gall bladder issues thanks to Dr. Google.  I have had a lot of stomach pain lately but don't really have time for it to be a gall bladder issue, so I am hoping the pain goes away soon.

Fall and winter come with lovely dry skin.  I have some severe dry skin patches on my arms, my thumb, the palm of my hand and one big toe.  I think I got a little itch crazy in my sleep the other day as I woke up with the skin on my arm rubbed raw.  Ouch!  We watched a re-run of Criminal Mind last night about people that think they have weird fibers or bugs or spiders under their skin causing them to itch without relief, although nothing is really wrong.  I didn't even need Dr. Google to diagnose myself with that as well!  And yikes, my arms are pale and freckle-y.

 I do enjoy hunting but haven't really had time to do it.  12 days of rifle season and I got one night in.  I saw two does but was looking for a buck, so I didn't get one this year.  Oh well, it is awfully peaceful in those woods.  How come I can run 13.1 miles but I cant walk the quarter mile to the deer stand without getting winded???
A friend gave us some homemade strawberry jam.  It is Bg approved:
Between church, daycare, baby sitter and a very small private school, we have lots of teachers to get gifts for, which can get pretty pricey, so I always try to do something homemade.  I get the main school teachers something a little bigger, but I think I will have the girls make these up for all other teachers (and my girls go to a Christian school and daycare, so I wont be offending anyone with my religious Christmas message).
 

Friday, November 13, 2015

Speed work and puzzles

I only paid a month membership at the gym, as I wasn't sure how often I could make it.  But since the girls are being SO awesome at the gym, I have been able to go everyday so far this week except Sunday!

I have been doing a 1 mile speed work program on the treadmill.  It provides a good warm up and increases my speed, so a bonus double!

My first day of the speedwork (sprint, run, walk every 1 minute) and I did it in about 10 minutes.  Last night I sprinted and jogged for a minute each, then only walked 30 seconds.  I actually cut out the final walk and sprinted.  Now my sprints aren't actual sprints for a good runner, but it is a good pace.  It makes me too nervous to sprint on a treadmill too fast as I am afraid of wiping out!  My time last night was 8:29.  Which is still slower than I can do a mile in, but I am hoping it is making me stronger.  I would like to run my upcoming 5K at an average of 8:29 per mile!


I am doing a 3 day lift program at the gym, so I didn't need to do any weights, but I did some core work.  I am feeling sore, but it is a good sore.  I can still function, unlike with crossfit.  The gym owner is going to research some running lift programs for me!

Chloe got a map of the US puzzle for her 6th birthday from her adorable friend Wyatt and it is still a favorite in our house.  Chloe likes to pick a state and describe it to Bg to see if she can guess the state.  This is her description of Kansas: "It is to the west of Missouri and we hate it."  Ha ha, I have her trained well.

Funny convo with Chloe on the way to school today.  She is going to her first slumber party and she can be a little hyper, so I wanted to have a behavior talk with her.
Me: Chloe, we need to talk.
Her: Mom, I already know what you are going to say and don't worry, I prayed about it last night.
Me: What was I going to say?
Her: That I need to be good.  And I prayed about it.

I love it!  I am glad she takes her struggles to God, but it worries me slightly that she has to actually pray to be good, rather than simply being good.
 

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Veteran's Day and Treadmills and Mizzou

Thank you to the Veteran's and those currently serving!  My grandpa and his sister (Sissie) both served in the Navy.  Sissie was actually career navy, while my grandpa served 3 years.  My cousin Caleb recently enlisted in the US Army.


People say I look like my grandpa.  That is fine with me!

The girls just started tumbling classes last week, so last night was their second night of classes.  They have taken the classes in the past, so they were very excited to get back into it.  The gym they take classes at has a little workout spot for the parents, so I figured if I had 45 minutes there, I may as well work out.  I did a 5K on the treadmill, which was a little better than at my gym, as I was able to watch the different classes of kids while running.  The treadmills there aren't as advanced as to what I am used to at the gym, so it took me a while to figure out the adjustments.  My goal right now is increasing speed, so I did the sprint 1 minute, jog 1 minute, walk 1 minute thing for the 1st mile.  I probably could have sprinted a bit faster, but sprinting on treadmills makes me a little nervous that I am going to make a fool of myself!  I did the last two miles at a decent clip and even adjusted the elevation a bit to make it harder.  At mile 1.5 I did a 2/10th of a mile steep hill.  At 2.5 miles I did a 1/10th of a mile slightly less steel hill.  I also want to increase my speed at the end of the races, so from 2.6 miles on, I increased the speed every 1/10th of a mile until I was practically sprinting at the end.  I definitely worked up much more of a sweat that I typically do when road running.  The 3.1 miles took me slightly less than a half hour, but the first mile was slower than normal due to the walking.  I feel like running on the treadmill is harder than road running.  Maybe b/c it is boring?  I don't know.

I will make it to the gym tonight, as we always stick around town on Wednesday nights due to church.  I assist in the 1st-6th grade girls class although I have been a major flake in helping the last few months.

So....Mizzou.  My alma mater in the middle of the national spotlight in a negative way.  This makes me incredibly sad, as Mizzou was always such a safe, fun place for me as a student.  I know I was probably very isolated in the ag school, but I honestly can say that I didn't see racial tension.  I absolutely do not stand for racism and am disappointed in the people that have spouted off racist slurs, but I also don't believe the campus as a whole is represented by a few people and that the protest has gone overboard.  Their list of demands includes unconstitutional agendas, they are infringing on the rights of other students and they have let mob mentality take over.  Please keep Mizzou in your prayers.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Treadmills suck!

I went to the gym last night and figured I would do a 1 mile warm up on the treadmill at a 8:30 pace.  It sucked.  I was bored staring at the gym wall.  I felt like time was ticking by super slow.  I could hear the other people in the gym working out and I am nosy and wanted to see what they were doing, but I had my back to them.  I quit after 5 minutes.  Treadmill loser!

I had to take the girls with me and I was pretty nervous about it.  They are plenty old to entertain themselves, but Bg is very clingy to her mama.  The owner told me I could bring the girls if they sat quietly, stayed off the machines and no one complained.  Luckily they have WiFi and we brought the ipad.  The girls had several warnings that we would be kicked out if they touched the equipment (I was trying to be harsh!).  Well, they were AWESOME!!!  I even got two compliments on their behavior.  This whole gym thing just may work better than I thought.

The gym was slightly more crowded than Saturday and I didn't have Somer with me to show me what to do, so I was winging it with how to video's on bodybuilding.com.  One of the other members corrected me once on my technique, which I am glad he did, but also a little embarrassed that I am so clueless!  Unfortunately, he corrected me on my last set, but I will make sure to do it right next time! 

I signed up for my next 5K on Dec 12.  It is a Candy Cane 5K and I actually get a hoodie!!!  I would like to get a time around 26-27 minutes, so I probably need to do some speed work between now and then.  Based on last years times, I could possibly place 2nd in my age group!

Monday, November 9, 2015

Official Gym Member & Weekend Update

I am officially a gym member!!  I joined a new gym in town last week and have been......one time!  I only joined for one month so I can see how many times I realistically go.  I plan to go tonight but of course forgot my pass key!  I am hoping someone will be there to let me in.

For the fact that I have been a gym member before and was somewhat of an athlete in high school (okay, I sucked, but I was on the teams), I should know my way around a weight room better, so I was a bit lost.  Luckily Somer met me there, gave me a 3 day lift program to follow and guided me around the gym.  I probably ruined her workout (sorry!).  I got a little light headed while lifting and Somer told me it was probably my breakfast causing it- two cinnamon rolls and a pop tart- not exactly the breakfast of champions.

I need to do some research on good weight programs for runners.  Unless any of my 4 readers have any good suggestions.  I will wait for all those to roll in.

We had a surprise birthday party Saturday night for on old childhood friends of Jeff's and a good friend of mine now.  She was very surprised!  We had a great time with a great group.  Her parents rented a party bus and it was a riot.  My friend Julie and I had to pretend we stole the bus at one point:


I found this silly picture on my phone.  So glad Bg and Chloe like to take pictures:
My adorable nephew is officially walking...at TEN MONTHS!!! He is going places, let me tell you!
The girls and I put together our shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child on Sunday afternoon.  I really hope I am teaching them generosity and compassion. 

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Cousin lovin and Halloween fun

I only have one sister who (at the time my girls were born) has older girls and Jeff's sister has no kids, so I was always a bit sad that my girls would never have cousins close in age for them to play with.  I didn't have a ton of cousins my age, but I did have one the exact same age and have so many great childhood memories of playing with my cousin.  I have a TON of cousins though and it was just something I never thought my girls would have.

But....last year one of my cousins married a gal with 3 little girls, pretty close in age to my girls! Instant cousins and friends.  What a fun blessing!  Unfortunately though, these cousins live a little over 3 hours away, but they happened to live right by where I raced last weekend so we got to see a lot of them this weekend. 

Bg stayed the night with the youngest cousin at their house Friday night and the oldest cousin spent the night at my aunts with Chloe.  We spent all day Saturday shopping with them and having a blast. 

Branson has so much neat stuff...including this larger than life rocking chair!
 And, we even got to see Santa (yes, Santa in October!).  But this is Branson and they have a lot of Christmas stuff year round.
 We found a giant ape to climb all over.
 
Saturday was also Halloween.  Bg was Elsa and Chloe's costume was called "Greek Goddess" but I am weird about using the term God (or Goddess in this case) when not actually talking about our Lord (the ONLY GOD), so we changed the name of the costume to a Greek Princess.
 

A Greek pose:
 Prettiest Elsa ever!  We found this Elsa wig half off at the Disney store hours before this photo was taken- what a deal!
 We didn't know it, but Bg's cousin was going as Olaf, so we had a pair!
 
 
Since we were away from home for Halloween, we had to trust that our cousins knew where to go.  We stopped at a nearby church for a trunk or treat and then walked the neighborhood around the church.  It was seriously the coolest trick or treating I have ever done.  When you live in the country, you drive from house to house, so I haven't ever really seen where crowds of kids just go from house to house like they did here.  It kind of reminded me of the ET Halloween scene with all the kids in the street.  I loved it, except I totally wore the WRONG shoes.  I could barely walk at the end.  Maybe that is why my race suffered the next day.
 
This house was serving hot dogs, coffee and cocoa.  The yard decorations were all on motion sensors and activated scary (but fun) things when we walked by.


 
Graveyard!!

 
The kids went to their cousins after trick or treating to watch Halloween movies while my mom and I watched game 4 of the Worlds Series, which the Royals won.
 
And, the Royals made an AMAZING comeback in the 9th inning of game 5 to win the World's Series.  And this die hard fan.....was sleeping.   It was the day of my marathon and daylight savings time and I fell asleep in the 8th inning.  I missed the two tie runs to tie the game and then the several OT innings.  The last time Royals won the Worlds Series was 1985- I was 4.  The same age as Bg- a cool thing!!

Monday, November 2, 2015

Firecracker!!

I had what I think is my 4th and last half marathon of the year on Sunday.  I had lofty goals...I wanted to break 2:10.  I know that isn't that fast in terms of half marathoners, but for someone like me it seemed pretty lofty.

The weather was perfect- cool and no wind!  We had time change the night before, so I should have had an extra hour of sleep, but I woke up way early like I always do race days.

I made a huge racing mistake- I was a firecracker.  I started off too fast and too hard and fizzled at the end.  I was incredibly disappointed in myself.  I was able to run all of the half two weeks earlier with hardly any trouble, so I thought I was good to go on this one.  However, I kind of forgot I had a stomach bug on Monday/Tuesday and therefore went about two days of no eating less than a week before the race.  Needless to say, I ran out of energy fast. 

I started off good.  I wanted to do around 9 minute miles the first half of the race and settle into 10 minute miles the second half.  I knew I would have a cheering crowd for the race so I thought that would encourage me and push me harder.  It was fun looking out for my mom, aunt and my two girls and I couldn't wait to see the signs they worked so hard on:
I have no clue what the Fun Fast Frozen sign meant, but Bg wanted it to say that, so that is what we did.
 
The last two races I used Gu Chews during the race.  I don't know if they actually give me energy or not, but I like the way they taste and do give me a bit of a kick.  However, I forgot to buy any before the race, so I did find Gatorade brand chews.  They didn't taste as good but they were okay.  I ate one at mile 3 and then again at mile 5, but I somehow dropped them and didn't notice.  So I am going to blame that on why I ran out of energy! 
 
I ran the first 3 miles feeling pretty good.  I was under 9 minutes on each, but didn't really feel like I was going super fast.  My IT band started hurting on mile 4.  In St Louis, it hurt in short stabbing pains during the first half of my race that came and went, and finally went away around mile 7.  However, this pain was more of a dull consistent pain that never went away.  My ankle was hurting slightly and I could feel my toes doing something painful.  My breathing was okay, but I just didn't have energy and my body hurt.  I really struggled the last few miles.  I walked off and on quite a bit the last 3 miles, which I didn't have to do the previous two races.  I did have a bit more energy than I thought and was able to finish strong.  My mom got this photo of me, which looks like I was running alone, but there was actually quite a few runners around me.  I sprinted the last 100 yards or so and passed 3 people right at finish! 

 
As much as I hurt during the race, I will say that my post race felt easier than most.  My legs were sore, but not quite the same level of soreness as after the Kansas City or Branson race.  I think I definitely had mental issues during the race which may have caused some of my physical issues. 
 
My official time was 2:17:53, so about 4 minutes slower than St Louis.  Dang.  You can see where I started to struggle:
I got another cool medal:
After the race, we walked around a bit to cheer on my friends as they finished, we went out to eat and drove about an hour.  I asked my mom to drive the rest of the way home.  I finally took off my shoes, as my toes were hurting really bad and I found out why: my first bloody toes!  Warning BLOODY TOE PICS!!!

After I got my goes cleaned up, I realized that the toe covered in blood wasn't the hurt toe.  That fourth toe kind of twists and the toenail scraped the heck out of the middle toe.  So, luckily no blister or lost toenail!

I have always been sore after the race, but today I have had a lot of knee pain.  I haven't had knee pain before and this isn't in the same place as my IT band knee pain, so not sure what is causing it.

Official race state:
Time; 2:17:53
Average pace: 10:32
Overall place: 762/1454
Division: 50/137
Female: 375/907

My 2016 goals- to break 2 hours!!!!